Vodacom irons out bug that leaked its customer details

VODACOM has reversed a software glitch that led to some subscribers’ phone numbers being leaked, it says.

The cellular network ran a software update to increase security on certain opt-in services and facilities allowing customers to charge purchases to their phone bill, spokesman Richard Boorman said.

“In these specific instances, we provide the cellphone number to the app store or service provider in order that the service can be charged.

“A bug has been identified in this update which means that in some cases the cellphone number and handset unique identifier number were sporadically visible to other websites.”

When Vodacom became aware of the problem it reversed the software update and was developing a solution.

“We take customer privacy issues extremely seriously and are putting together a comprehensive response to ensure that there is not a recurrence of this incident,” Boorman said.

He told the Saturday Star the issue had been rectified on the same day it was identified (Wednesday).

“The original reporting was highly erroneous,” said Boorman. “Vodacom does not sell customer information under any circumstances. This is in no way the source of spam. Information was not exposed to every website visited.”

He said the issue resulted from a software update two weeks ago. “The only information potentially visible was the cellphone number and IMEI identifying number of the handset. No names, banking details, addresses and so on.”